9 Managing Oracle BI Discoverer Preferences

This chapter only applies to Discoverer Plus Relational and Discoverer Viewer with relational and OLAP worksheets. For more information about configuring Discoverer Plus OLAP, see Chapter 5, "Configuring Discoverer Plus OLAP".

This chapter explains how to manage Oracle BI Discoverer preferences, and contains the following topics:

When a new user starts an Oracle BI Discoverer session for the first time, the settings in the pref.txt file take effect as that user's default settings.

After installation, the user preferences can be changed in the following ways:

Discoverer end users can change their own user preferences using options within Discoverer Plus or Discoverer Viewer. For example, a Discoverer Viewer end user might click Preferences and change their personal preferences. When an individual user changes a preference, this change is stored in the reg_key.dc file on the Discoverer middle tier (to find out the location of this file, see Section A.1, "Discoverer file locations").

Individual preferences are stored for each user as a unique combination of database and userid in the reg_key.dc file, and loaded whenever the user starts a new session. Therefore, users can log on from different client machines and still have their individual settings take effect.

For example, a Discoverer Plus end user might select Tools | Options to display the Options dialog and change the Number of rows per page value to 15. The following entry might be stored in reg_key.dc for that user:

"RowsPerPage"=D4:4:00,00,00,0F

where '0F' is the hexadecimal value of 15.

Note: Unless a user changes a preference value, the value of that preference is as specified in the pref.txt file.

You can change the default preference values that Discoverer end users are presented with by changing the values in the pref.txt file. For the changes to take effect, you must 'apply' the preferences. For more information about changing default preference values, see Section 9.4, "How to set default user preferences for all users".

On UNIX implementations, the .reg_key.dc is a hidden UNIX file (that is, the filename is prefixed with a '.'). Type the command ls -al to list hidden files.

Never edit the reg_key.dc file directly. You must only change values in reg_key.dc using the Discoverer preferences command line utility dis51pr (to find out the location of this file, see Section A.1, "Discoverer file locations").

If you delete the reg_key.dc file, you lose preferences set by Discoverer end users or preferences set using the Discoverer preferences command line utility. Default preferences stored in pref.txt are applied.

The factory supplied default values for pref.txt are contained in the defaults.txt file (to find out the location of this file, see Section A.1, "Discoverer file locations"). If you make a mistake when editing the pref.txt file (or lose or corrupt the file), refer to defaults.txt to restore the content of pref.txt to the original values.

Maximum values for numeric preferences are documented in the pref.txt file.

You can edit the pref.txt file without shutting down the Preferences component. In other words, users can continue working while you edit the pref.txt file.

Note: Changes that you make to the default user preferences only apply to new end users, or end users who have not changed their settings. Changes do not affect end users who have changed their own settings.

Tip: Check for error messages in the error.txt file in the current directory to verify that the preferences were applied correctly (for more information about the location of configuration files, see Section A.1, "Discoverer file locations").

9.5 How to set individual preferences for specific users

To set individual preferences for specific users:

From the command prompt, navigate to the directory containing the Discoverer preferences command line utility dis51pr (to find out the location of this file, see Section A.1, "Discoverer file locations").

Use the Discoverer preferences command line utility to enter a command at the command prompt.

This command sets the new preferences and creates a new version of reg_key.dc.

Specifies whether to aggregate repeated values. If set to 0, Discoverer displays the non-aggregable label.

0

0 = do not aggregate repeat values

1 = aggregate repeat values

AppsFNDNAM

Database

Specifies the schema in which Oracle Applications data is stored.

APPS

Valid Apps foundation name

AppsGWYUID

Database

Specifies the public user name and password for the AOL security DLL.

APPLSYSPUB/PUB

Valid Apps user name and password

AxisLabelBehavior

Application

Specifies whether Discoverer exports axis labels as part of a worksheet.

1

1 = export axis labels

2 = do not export axis labels

3 = use the same export format as Discoverer Desktop

BusinessAreaFastFetchLevel

Database

Specifies the amount of pre-caching that occurs for components and items whenever a Business Area is fetched.

1

1

CacheFlushPercentage

Application

Specifies the percentage of cache flushed if the cache is full.

25

User specified

CellPadding

Application

Specifies the amount of space (in pixels) that appears around each cell value in the table or crosstab when displayed or printed. For example, 0 = no pixels, 1 = one pixel, 2 = two pixels.

Note: Set this value to 0 to reduce the size of printed reports by removing extra spaces.

Tip: For more information about reducing the size of a printed report, see the PrintHeadersOnce preference.

1

User specified

Tip: To avoid worksheet layout problems, do not specify a value greater than 5.

ColumnWidth

Application

Specifies default column width in pixels.

100

Greater than 1

DefaultEUL

Database

Specifies the EUL to which you want all users to connect. Each user can override this default from the Discoverer Plus Options dialog.

Any EUL you have created.

Any valid EUL

DefaultExportPath

Application

Specifies a default export path in Discoverer Plus Relational.

If set to "", Discoverer saves exported files in the client browser machine's home directory (that is, the profile directory in Windows). For example, on a Windows XP client, this path might be c:\Documents and Settings\<Windows user name>.

""

User specified

DefaultPreserveDisplayPropertyForRefresh

Database

When refreshing, specifies whether an updated item description is discarded and replaced with the original description, or whether the updated description is retained.

0

0 = Use updated description

1 = Use original description

DisableAlternateSortOptimization

Database

Specifies whether Discoverer writes optimized Alternate Sort queries.

Tip: Set to 1 only if you use external registered summaries.

0

0 = Do not write optimized Alternate Sort queries

1 = Do write optimized Alternate Sort queries

DisableAutoOuterJoinsOnFilters

Database

Specifies the behavior of Discoverer when running queries involving an outer join with a condition (or conditions) applied.

The effect of this setting is fully explained in the Oracle Fusion Middleware User's Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Discoverer Plus.

Specifies whether repeated values on the left side of a Discoverer crosstab worksheet are displayed, or replaced as NULL. For example, if you display Month in the left axis, you might want to repeat the month for each row so that when you export the worksheet to CSV format you export all required data.

1

0 = display repeated values

1 = display repeated values as NULL

GraphAxesAutoScaledFromZero

Application

Specifies whether the default minimum value for the Graph axis scale is 0 or not.

If set to 1, the minimum scale valueis set to 0, otherwise Discoverer chooses the minimum scale value automatically.

1

0 = do not scale to 0

1 = scale to 0

ItemClassDelay

Database

Specifies a timeout value in seconds for fetching a list of values.

15

User specified

MaxRowsPerFetch

Database

Specifies the number of database rows retrieved in each fetch from the database.

Note: For SSO-based connections, Discoverer Plus does not consider the Global User Inactivity Timeout (GUIT) setting defined in the SSO server. To get the same SSO timeout behavior for Discoverer Plus, you can set the Timeout value in pref.txt the same value as the GUIT setting.

9.6.1 About the EnhancedAggregationStrategy user preference setting

The EnhancedAggregationStrategy user preference controls how Discoverer Plus and Discoverer Viewer make use of the Oracle9i (version 9.2.0.7 or later) database's enhanced aggregation functionality.

The settings control the SQL that is generated for the query, and specify whether there should be an exact match between client request and the aggregation levels retrieved from the database, or whether more aggregation levels are retrieved from the database than are requested by the client.

The table below explains the EnhancedAggregationStrategy user preference settings in more detail:

Value

Description

0

Off

The generated SQL contains an ordinary GROUP BY clause.

1

Strict Grouping Sets

The generated SQL contains GROUPING SET requests that exactly match the GROUPING SET requests made by Discoverer. The requests that Discoverer makes are determined by how the end user created the worksheet.

For example, the generated GROUP BY clause might be similar to the following:

GROUP BY GROUPING SETS((Department, Region, Year),(Department),())

Note: This value (the default) might be used if you want to maximize performance.

2

Optimized

The generated SQL contains GROUPING SET requests with additional ROLLUP functions. The use of ROLLUP functions enables the SQL to fetch more aggregation levels than requested by Discoverer. This typically enables the end user to add totals or pivot without needing to re-query the database.

For example, the generated GROUP BY clause might be similar to the following:

Note: This value might be used if worksheet users do a lot of drilling or pivoting when using worksheets.

3

Cube

The generated SQL contains a Grouping Set request for a CUBE of the items requested. This is the highest pre-fetch strategy for aggregation levels from the database and should be used with caution as there might be a severe performance overhead in increased query time and resource usage.

For example, the generated GROUP BY clause might be similar to the following:

GROUP BY GROUPING SETS(CUBE(Department, Region, Year))

4

Auto Determine

Discoverer automatically determines which of the above strategies to use (that is, 1, 2, or 3 above).

9.6.2 About setting the timeout value for Discoverer

You specify a Discoverer timeout if you want Discoverer sessions to shut down automatically after a specified time period if no user interaction has occurred during that time. Before Discoverer shuts down, a warning message is displayed in Discoverer Plus. For example, if a Discoverer session is not used for ten minutes, the Discoverer session shuts down. The Discoverer end user must reconnect to use Discoverer again.

The viewerSessionTimeOut variable is defined in the variable-definition and variable-assignment sections of the deployment plan. You should modify only the viewerSessionTimeOut variable which is defined in the variable-definition section. The value is defined in minutes.

Change the value of the viewerSessionTimeOut variable to a valid integer value. For example, change the value to 30 (thirty minutes).

Note: If Single Sign-On is enabled, Discoverer Viewer also considers the Global User Inactivity Timeout (GUIT) value defined in the SSO server. In this case, the least value among the session-timeout and GUIT values takes the precedence over the other.

9.7 How to convert a Discoverer preferences file to a different platform format

Oracle Business Intelligence Discoverer stores registry settings in the reg_key.dc file. If you want to move a Discoverer installation from one platform to another platform (for example, from Windows to Solaris), you must convert the reg_key.dc file to change the format of integer values (for example, from BigEndian format to LittleEndian format). You change the format of integer values using the convertreg.pl script that is installed with Oracle Business Intelligence. For more information about the location of configuration files, see Section A.1, "Discoverer file locations".

You must convert the reg_key.dc file when you move between the following platforms:

Windows/Linux to Solaris/HPUX/AIX

Solaris/HPUX/AIX to Windows/Linux

Note: Do not use the convertreg.pl script to convert the reg_key.dc file between Windows to Linux.

To convert a Discoverer preferences file to a different platform format:

Copy the reg_key.dc file from the source machine to the target machine (for example, from the Windows machine to a Solaris machine).

On the target Oracle Business Intelligence installation, run the convertreg.pl script at the command prompt:

perl convertreg.pl <old file name> <new file name>

Where:

<old file name> is the name of the original reg_key.dc file

<new file name> is the name that you want to give the file produced by the convertreg.pl script

For example, if the source file is called windows_reg_key.dc, you might type:

pl convertreg.pl windows_reg_key.dc solaris_reg_key.dc

If required, rename the target file.

If you named the target file solaris_reg_key.dc, rename this file as reg_key.dc.

You have now converted the reg_key.dc to the correct format for the target platform.

9.8 About migrating Discoverer preferences

You migrate Oracle BI Discoverer preferences when you want to upgrade to a new version of Discoverer. For example, you might want to upgrade from Oracle BI Discoverer Version 10.1.2 to the current version of Oracle BI Discoverer.

How you migrate Discoverer preferences depends on which version of Discoverer you are using, as follows:

if you are upgrading from Oracle BI Discoverer Version 9.0.2 or 9.0.4 to Oracle BI Discoverer Version 10.1.2, refer to the 10.1.2 documentation for details.